Calvin Andrew | Eight Months

Your eighth month (for the record I do these posts of his month of life, he turns 8 months at the end of the month. It confuses me!) was a great one. Thanksgiving and the big news is that I gave notice at my job to become a full-time stay at home mom! So you’ll be seeing a lot more of me Cal.

Reading, or really doing anything, with Dada and Grant is a favorite.

Pre-bedtime books.

Morning snuggles, showing off all our chins.

And just hanging out together.You boys are starting to imitate each other more. Laying in the same positions.

I had to prop you up for this but you both sat together for quite awhile!

The biggest news is that you FINALLY started sleeping 12 hours at night! You weren’t even needing to nurse but the middle of the night waking seemed like it would go on forever. Until, finally, you took some oatmeal mixed with milk before bedtime. After a day or two of that you started sleeping, right at 7.5 months old. Bonus fact: this is the precise same age your brother started sleeping through the night. Third child is questionable…

You are not so interested in solids. We had to recruit some help…

‘Your brother was always a good eater and it’s pretty funny to hear him baffled by your lack of interest in FOOD.Cal we simply cannot imagine our family without you. You are so sweet and becoming increasingly vocal and playful.

Grant Paul – Four Months!

This parenting thing just keeps getting better. Month three was definitely the best so far. I don’t know if it’s just your rotund size, but you are becoming such a little person, hardly even a baby any more! It’s hard to even describe how much I love you and love being with you.

You actually turned four months old in the Florida Keys. You are one lucky boy. Mama lathered you up with sunscreen and yelled at anyone who forgot to put your hat on.
Your little personality is coming out. You are happy and silly nearly all the time. You love to make faces and noises at us and we can have whole conversations of coos and grunts and other funny noises. I love it!

This month you went from having little control or interest in using your hands to constantly grabbing and swinging at everything. You love to grab onto the rings on your playmat and pullllllllllll.

You put everything in your mouth. Sophie the giraffe is a new favorite. Easy for you to hold and gnaw on.

You are really strong. Tummy time is a piece of cake.

You also love to sit and stand now! When I hold out my hands to you, you grab on and do a mini sit up so you can pull yourself up. And when I go to burp you, you immediately straighten your legs to a stand position. You want to stand all the time.

Night sleeping is so much better! At about 12 weeks you basically turned into a newborn again and started waking up every hour at night. It was killing me. So we finally decided you were old enough to self-soothe and we let you fuss and cry, checking on you every 10 minutes. The first night you cried and fussed for an hour and then fell dead asleep, only waking up once all night! The second night you cried for six minutes. Then nothing! Since then you’ve had a few nights where you fussed but you always fell asleep before we hit 10 minutes. Most nights we dream feed you at 10 [you don’t even wake up] and then you sleep  until 3/4 a.m., eat and then back to sleep until 6 or 7 am when we start the day. Let me tell you, consistently getting 5+ hours of sleep has been really good for mama.

Unfortunately more sleep at night coincided with the onset of very short naps. Gone are the days of your 90+ minute naps, at least without being held. I am hopeful you will get into a better nap routine soon.

You celebrated your first Christmas! You didn’t know what was going on, but you love your new toys.

You took your first airplane ride! You did great and mama enjoyed the hours of snuggling.

While we were in Florida you went in a pool for the first time. That did not go so well.

We LOVE being your parents Grant. You are just a wonderful little boy.

Four Month Stats:

16 lbs 11 oz

26 3/4 inches

Likes:

Standing, jumping in your new jumper, Sophie the Giraffe, sucking on your hands, trying to suck on other people’s hands, “talking,” smiling at people, being smiled at, kisses and snuggles.

Dislikes:

Taking naps longer than 45 minutes when not being held, being “ignored” (when Mom and Dad try to have a conversation at dinner)

Here’s to another month of fun!